AstroPanic 94!

AstroPanic 94! rev D.

     Register for only $5

     copyright 1994 Dan Ackerman


     THE DOC FILE...


     What's this game all about?


          Well your homeland is being attacked
     by aliens in flying saucers.  Luckily for
     you, they are extremely stupid.  Unluckily
     for you, they are extremely stupid.  You 
     are on the frontier in your state of the
     art astro cannon, blasting the badies from
     the stratosphere.  Watch out, as time goes 
     on they get more numerous.       


     Compatibility:


     AstroPanic 94! runs on any TOS compatible 
     computer in any planar video mode (2,4,16,
     256 colors) with sprites designed for each
     mode.  Heavily tested on numerous atari
     graphics cards.

     DMA sound recommended but not necessary.

     Blitter equiped machines prefered, but not
     strictly necessary.


     Enemies:

          In this release there are only two
     types of aliens.  There are DRONES which
     simply fly around the screen, inadvertantly
     running into you from time to time.  There
     are also BOMBERS which, of course, drop
     bombs.


          Want more aliens? -- REGISTER.

     Currently the REGISTERED version contains
     two additional aliens.  A BONUS SHIP for
     extra points and a LASER Satelite, that
     fires beams at you.  Did I mention that
     the beams are deadly and remain active for a
     short period of time, making maneuvering a 
     challenge?  

     Bonuses and Anti Bonuses

     If you get an accuracy rating of 76%> on any
     level you will get a bonus, up to 10% of your
     score at 100%.  

     If you get an accuracy rating of 24%< on any
     level you will get a penalty, up to 10% of
     your score at 1%.
     

     Game Play:


     Well, just a few quick notes about how the
     game works. If you don't already know ;)

     First you fire with the right mouse button.
     Game is entirely mouse driven. *almost*

     Keyboard commands...


     'Esc' quits the game during play
     'Undo' aborts current game and return to 
               the main menu
     'F9'  Disable/Enable sounds (Mute button)
     'F10' Disable/Enable Background sounds (* 
               only non DMA sound machines)
     'left arrow' moves ship left
     'right arrow' moves ship right
     'up arrow' fires missile

     Any other key will pause the game during
     game play.

     Aborting & Exiting Game:

     You can exit AstroPanic from the Main Menu
     with the Exit button and during play you can
     also do a quick exit with the 'Esc' key.
     If you just happen to be having a bad game
     and want to restart, you can press the 
     'Undo' key.  This will return you to the
     Main Menu.


     Non DMA Sound:

     If you don't have DMA sound (ie. Stacy, Mega, 
     ST[non E]), you can now *enjoy* the sounds 
     of AstroPanic94!.  The background sounds are
     enabled by default, however, if you have a 
     slow machine you may wish to disable them by
     pressing F10.  .AVRs with rates greater than
     16000 will sound slow and STEREO sounds are
     not supported.

     DMA Sound:

     If you have DMA sound (ie. STe, Mega STe, TT
     or Falcon030), AstroPanic 94! will use the 
     DMA sound system (or Falcon).  It supports
     12500,25000,50000 rates (& 6250 on anything 
     other than Falcon030) and Stereo samples.
     8 bit sounds are supported on all DMA 
     machines, and the Falcon supports 16 bit 
     sounds.
   
     Mute Button:

     If for any reason (phone call etc.) you have
     the need for temporarily turning the sounds
     off, you can now press 'F9'.  'F9' toggles
     the sound switch on and off, while still
     allowing you to play the game.

     Selecting Sounds to be used

     You can now select different sound sets from
     the main menu.  These can be on any drive on 
     the system.  On floppy based systems you can
     make one disk with the program and .img files 
     on it and another with the sounds.  Once the
     game boots and you are at the Main Menu, click
     on the select sound set button.  When the 
     fileselector comes up swap disks and click on
     the button next to the disk path.  Then go
     into the folder the sounds are in and click 
     ok.

     Panic looks for a folder called "ORIGINAL" 
     when it boots.  It must be in the same dir-
     ectory as Panic.  If it can't find this
     folder you will not get an intro sound or
     any game sounds until you select a sound
     folder from the "Select sound set" button.

     You can also change the sound files that are 
     used.  These can be replaced by any .AVR 
     sound file you might want to use.  These can
     either be put into the "ORIGINAL" folder to
     replace the sounds there or can be placed
     into their own folder and selected from the
     "Select sound set" button.

     If you want to make your own sound set
     load as the default, rename the "ORIGINAL"
     folder to something else and rename your own
     sound set folder to "ORIGINAL".  NOTE:
     This folder must be located in the same
     directory as PANIC.PRG.  On some older TOS
     machines you may have to make a new folder
     and move the "ORIGINAL" files into it and
     then move your own sounds into the original
     folder.

     You can also delete or rename any .AVR file 
     you want.  Astropanic does not need all of 
     the .AVR's, if it encounters one that 
     doesn't exist, it just skips it.


     Sound file names:

     
     BADD.AVR  -    <25% Accuracy
     BOMB.AVR  -    Bombers dropping bombs
     BONUS.AVR -    Bonus Ship (only regisetered 
                                   version)
     BOOM.AVR  -    Saucers exploding
     EXPL.AVR  -    You exploding
     DONE.AVR  -    Level over
     GOOD.AVR  -    75%> + Accuracy
     INTRO.AVR -    Intro sound
     LASER.AVR -    Laser Satelite firing (only
                              registered version)
     LAST.AVR  -    Last Cannon
     MENU.AVR  -    Background sound for Menu
     NEXT.AVR  -    Next Cannon
     OVER.AVR  -    Game Over
     PERF.AVR  -    100% Accuracry
     SHOT.AVR  -    Cannon firing missile
     TADA.AVR  -    Bonus sound


     Turning Sound off:

     You may at some point in time, such as when
     want to play a .MOD or when your significant
     other is sick of the sounds, turn all the 
     sounds off.  You can do this by clicking on
     the "Sound ON" button.  This will turn the
     sound off and display "Sound Off".

     During game play you can also disable it by
     pressing the 'F9' key. (see Mute Button)

     Notes about game:


     If you don't have a fast machine rename the
     .IMG files.  Or at least PANIC.IMG, which is
     a 256 color image and takes a long time to
     dither down to whatever resolution you're in.
     PANIC16.IMG only took a minute or so on my 
     1040STe so it's not too cumbersome. The game 
     will start normally and just bypass the title 
     screen, if you rename it.

     The high score table is now saved in the file
     PANIC.DFT.  This must be in the same directory
     as PANIC.PRG.  If you don't have one, you can
     create a new one by viewing the high score
     list. Do this before you play a game, or your
     high score will not be saved.
          

     Known problems.

     It doesn't like SpeedoGDOS on the Falcon.
     If you disable the IMG files (see above)
     then you shouldn't have any problems.  If
     you leave the IMG's and Speedo enabled, it
     will simply prompt you with a "Not enough
     memory" alert.

     AstroPanic94! does not like to be buried too
     deeply in folders on some machines.  On my
     Falcon it doesn't matter where it is, but on
     my 1040STe it won't run properly under more
     than one folder (such as GAMES/PANIC.REL/)
     

     Other ideas.

     If you have a Jaguar controller and your machine
     can use it.  Get PowerMouse.  It allows you
     to use the Jag controller in place of the 
     mouse.

     Use a .MOD player.  The game is GEM legal
     so you should be able to use any .mod player
     you wish in the background.  If you wish to
     do this simply rename INTRO.AVR to INTRO.AVX
     and MENU.AVR to MENU.AVX.  Then once you are
     into the game turn the sound off.

     
     Authors notes:

     If you like what you see register it.  If you 
     see some promise in what's here then register.


     I now have a game engine going.  What happens
     from here is up to you.  There is alot more 
     that can be done with this game and I could
     do some others as well.  Anyone for a 256 color
     asteroids clone?

     
     If you register this game, you will get two
     more alien types and I will also listen to your
     suggestions on what to do with it next.


     I could put it all in a window.
     Add even more aliens.
     Different weapons.
     
     Code some other game (suggestions open)


     As far as I know, this is the first arcade type
     game that will run on virtually any configuration 
     you throw at it. TT's, Falcon's, STe's, 
     MegaSTe's, Mega's even 520's & 1040's.
     And do you have a graphics card?  Well this
     game loves them!

     I just ask that you show me the small amount
     of encouragement that I ask for.


     My address:

     D. Ackerman
     P.O.Box 361
     Mt. Vernon, Oh 43050


     If you have an Internet account include that 
     with your registration and I will send you a
     registered copy electronically.  This way saves
     me money so you just pay the straight $5
     registration fee.


     If you want me to mail you a disk with the 
     current version of Astropanic 94!, then please
     enclose an extra $5 for shipping and handling.
     Or a total of $10. (This applies for people
     in the lower 48 continental U.S. states.) If you 
     are over seas, please contact me to find a local
     distributor.

     ---


     Well that's all for now.  Have fun and let me
     know if you find any bugs.

     Dan Ackerman
     baldrick@terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu